Lewis was born to Jamaican parents, spent his early childhood in England, and then moved with his mother to Canada. An all-around athlete in high school, he excelled in several sports but soon focused on boxing and developed into one of Canada’s best amateur fighters. At the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, Lewis beat American Riddick Bowe to earn the gold medal in the superheavyweight division.

Lewis returned to his native England in 1989 to pursue a professional career. He was undefeated in his first 22 professional fights and earned a title bout with Bowe, who had become the heavyweight champion. The 6-foot 5-inch (1.96-metre), 230-pound (104.3-kg) Lewis was exceptionally large for a boxer, and his size posed special problems for the average heavyweight. Not surprisingly, Bowe and his manager chose to pursue lucrative fights against easier opponents. The World Boxing Council (WBC) stripped Bowe of his title and awarded it to Lewis, who defended the title three times before losing in an upset to American Oliver McCall in London in September 1994.

For the next few years Lewis won all his fights and worked to secure another championship fight. In 1997 American boxer Mike Tyson held the WBC heavyweight title but was unwilling to face the much taller Lewis. When a court order demanded that Tyson defend his crown against Lewis, he surrendered the title. On February 7, 1997, Lewis again faced McCall for the vacant WBC crown and won by technical knockout in the fifth round after McCall refused to fight. A unification bout in March 1999 at New York City’s Madison Square Garden against American Evander Holyfield, who held the heavyweight titles of the World Boxing Association (WBA) and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) ended in a controversial draw. The November rematch in Las Vegas, Nevada, was another closely scored fight, but Lewis landed more punches and emerged, finally, as the undisputed champion of the heavyweight division.

In April 2000 Lewis was stripped of the WBA portion of his title after a legal dispute with the promoter Don King prevented a timely defense of his title against an acceptable opponent. That same year Lewis went on to defeat Michael Grant, Franz Botha, and David Tua to retain his IBF and WBC heavyweight titles. In a surprising outcome in April 2002, Lewis lost to underdog Hasim Rahman in a fifth-round knockout. In the November rematch Lewis reclaimed his title from Rahman, knocking him out in the fourth round. After much legal and business wrangling, a bout with Tyson was finally set for June 8, 2002, in Memphis, Tennessee. Lewis knocked Tyson out in the eighth round. In the fall of 2002, Lewis relinquished the IBF portion of his heavyweight title. While still recognized as the legitimate heavyweight world champion, Lewis announced his retirement in 2004 with a record of 41 wins (32 by knockout), 2 losses, and 1 draw.

Lewis was awarded the Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 1999 and the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2002. In 2009 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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